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ComputorEdge™ Online — 06/08/12

Click to Visit ComputorEdge™ Online on the Web!

Travel Apps for Kids, Mobile App News, Vehicle Safety, and More!

More little know computer and Internet stories, plus Digital Dave and articles based upon the whims of the writers.

Magazine Summary

List of ComputorEdge Sponsors

Digital Dave

by Digital Dave

Digital Dave answers your tech questions.

Backing Up Priorities; Google Chrome Browser with Accidental Toolbar; Microsoft Word Starter Doesn't Do the Job.

More Little Known High Tech Stories

by Marilyn K. Martin

Novel Solar and Soccer Power, Dashboard Touchscreens and Baby Tech-Onesies

Novel Solar and Soccer Power; Television Tech; High Tech Babies; X-Ray Cell Phones; Hit-and-Miss Tech: Touchscreen Dashes; Police Tech; Old Gadgets; Face Recognition; Smartphones; Gaming Updates; Seeking Start-Ups; Mobile App News; Apps for Kids; Vehicle Safety.

Wally Wang's Apple Farm

by Wally Wang

The Slow Death of Research in Motion

The Slow Death of Research in Motion; Recover Your Files; The iPad Data Plans; Predictions From Bill Gates; Losing the Monopoly; Safari Extensions.

Worldwide News & Product Reviews

by Charles Carr

The latest in tech news and hot product reviews.

Seven Ways to Keep Your Smartphone Safe; Free Web Service Helps Identify Internet Abuse; 76% of People Conduct Online Searches in Two or More Languages; StarTech Bi-Directional Adapter Converter.

EdgeWord: Facebook Follies

by Jack Dunning

There's a lot not of love lost with Facebook.

Some people are fond of pointing out that Facebook founder Zuckerberg has lost billions in the stock price drop, but the reality is that he never actually had most of that money in the first place.

Editor's Letters: Tips and Thoughts from Readers

by ComputorEdge Staff

Computer and Internet tips, plus comments on the articles and columns.

"LibreOffice," "Infected Computer—Beware!"

Send mail to ceeditor@computoredge.com with questions about editorial content.

Send mail to webmaster@computoredge.com with questions or comments about this Web site.

Copyright © 1997-2012 The Byte Buyer, Inc.

ComputorEdge Magazine, P.O. Box 83086, San Diego, CA 92138. (858) 484-1998

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Digital Dave

“Digital Dave answers your tech questions.”
by Digital Dave

Backing Up Priorities; Google Chrome Browser with Accidental Toolbar; Microsoft Word Starter Doesn't Do the Job.

Backing Up Priorities

Dear Digital Dave,

This may be a bit much, but would you please list briefly and in a broad way what should be put on your external hard drive for a backup of your computer? I have items on my Clickfree for backing up my hard drive and when I check out the backup, I have no idea what I am looking at. I know that backing up a system is owner's preference, but what are the major items that one should back up.

Also, after backup, you then restore. What will restore look like? I have never had to do a restore. Will all my backup items be put back the way they looked prior to backup or do I need to find them and do some tweaking?

Thank you Dave. I read this precious column faithfully every week.

Lynne Legare

Magnolia, Texas

Dear Lynne,

In Windows the primary program for backing up data to an external drive is called Backup and Restore Center. With this backup feature you can select specific folders and files to regularly copy to the external drive. It is usually set to the default of user folders such as Documents, Pictures, Music, Downloads, etc, plus a few other key folders. However, it is a good idea to check the settings to make sure that everything you need is being copied.

The most important information to back up are your data files. If you lose these, without a backup there will be no way to easily replace them. They often represent hours, days, or years of work. Some files, such as photos, would be impossible to replicate. These files include documents, photos, music, videos and anything else you specifically created.

(Backup and Restore which is oriented toward individual folders and files is separate from System Restore which is maintained on the same drive with system settings to return to an earlier restore point. It is also different from making a System Image which creates an exact copy of your operating system and settings to a selected drive.)

It is worthwhile to locate the folders where any new data files are stored to make sure that they are in the list of copied files. The Program Files folders are usually included in the default backup because new data files for specific programs are often stored there. In my case, I have set up separate folders for specific types of work which are not automatically included in any default backup. I had to add these folders to the Backup and Restore Center settings.

If you have copies of program installation discs or backup of your downloads, then it is not critical to back up the programs since you can always reinstall them. However, programs are usually included in the backup as noted above. This is useful if a file becomes corrupted or is accidentally deleted.

One of the best features of Backup and Restore is that you can go back to earlier dates to select an older version of a file. This may be necessary if you made too many changes to a file which didn't work out or a file became corrupted and was recently copied in its corrupted state.

If you look at the files on the external drive, you will see a cryptic set of zip files. You do not want to attempt to restore directly from the hard drive, but rather through the Backup and Restore Center. When you use Restore in the Backup and Restore Center, you will have the option to restore entire folders or individual files. You browse to the same folder name in the restore as where the original is (was) located. You can also locate an earlier version of a file.

Backup and Restore does not back up every file on each backup. Only those files which have changed are included in the new backup. This saves space and time. However, when you restore through the center, it will appear that you are looking at one complete set of backups. The key to restoring a backup of a folder or file is knowing the location of the original since the same tree structure is included in the backup. You will only need to tweak a file if you made changes to it since the last backup.

Digital Dave

Google Chrome Browser with Accidental Toolbar

Dear Digital Dave,

Help...running Windows 7 using Chrome as my Browser. Recently I wasn't watching what I was doing and didn't "uncheck" the AVG Toolbar connected to a program I was installing. I immediately used REVO to uninstall it.

But now, every time I open Chrome to my iGoogle page, I get four new tabs of iSearch.avg.com/cid opening. Is there any easy way to eliminate this issue? I did use Regedit to delete every instance of iSearch.Avg.com to no avail.

Steve

Escondido

Dear Steve,

The reason editing the Registry didn't work is because the problem of tabs opening on startup in Google Chrome is caused by a feature of the Web browser. Actually the solution is quite simple and an excellent technique for tailoring the Chrome startup with your favorite (most used) Web sites. (This multi-page startup capability is available in almost all browsers.)

To eliminate the unwanted pages, click the wrench icon in the upper right corner of the Chrome window and select Settings from the drop-down menu. Chrome Settings will open (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Google Chrome Settings page.

Under "On startup" the "Open a specific page or set of pages" option is most likely checked. Click "Set pages" and the "Startup pages" window will open. There you can select and delete the unwanted pages. You can further tailor your startup by adding other pages. If you pre-load the pages you use most into tabs of the open Chrome browser, you can click the "Use current pages" button to set all of those tabs to open upon startup.

I usually have about five of my favorite pages open on startup. Of course the first one is always www.computoredge.com.

Digital Dave

Microsoft Word Starter Doesn't Do the Job

Dear Digital Dave,

You're my last resort. I scan articles from the newspaper, magazines, etc. that I want to include in a book I'm writing. They go into my PDF file, but I can't get them to transfer to my Word document (book). I have Word Starter 2010.

I have a friend who has the upgrade version (pricy and hard to navigate per my friend) and he states he has no problem doing what I want to do. He thinks I should be able to do what I want with my version, but I even had the Geek Squad try with no luck. It would save me hours of work if I could do this.

Wayne Ford

Huntington Beach, CA

Dear Wayne,

I'm not sure what the exact issue is, but that doesn't affect my advice. You need software which is capable of handling changes and additions to your book. Since you don't want to buy Microsoft Word (or Microsoft Office which includes Word), you need to look for a cheaper alternative which will do the job.

The first programs that come to mind are LibreOffice (or the almost identical Apache OpenOffice). They are both free and have most of the capabilities of the Microsoft Office programs—especially Word, Excel (spreadsheet) and PowerPoint (presentation). I can't guarantee that either will solve your specific problem, but you should have no problem copying your book into the new software. (For more information on what's in the OpenOffice/LibreOffice packages, see the ComputorEdge e-books Getting Started with OpenOffice Free Software by Rob Spahitz.)

There are other free programs which readers may recommend. If you can't find one which will suit your situation, you may be forced to buy one of the Microsoft packages, although it is likely that there is an inexpensive solution.

Digital Dave

More Little Known High Tech Stories

“Novel Solar and Soccer Power, Dashboard Touchscreens and Baby Tech-Onesies”
by Marilyn K. Martin

Novel Solar and Soccer Power; Television Tech; High Tech Babies; X-Ray Cell Phones; Hit-and-Miss Tech: Touchscreen Dashes; Police Tech; Old Gadgets; Face Recognition; Smartphones; Gaming Updates; Seeking Start-Ups; Mobile App News; Apps for Kids; Vehicle Safety.

Novel Solar and Soccer Power

MIT's Technology Review in March 2012 has an article about a new design for solar inverters by a Texas company, Ideal Power Converters, which "could significantly lower the cost of solar power and make it practical in more places." The company has cut the size of inverters, which cuts the solar installation costs for devices that convert the DC power (made by solar panels) into the AC power needed for households or the grid. Ideal's inverters can fit in a suitcase and weight only 42 kilograms, so they could even be mounted on a wall. That's enough to eliminate $.15 per watt from the installation alone.

sOccket, the power-generating soccer ball, received a Breakthrough Award from Popular Mechanics in 2010. Four Harvard grads invented the ball as a way to harness the energy of the world's most popular sport by collecting kinetic energy with every kick. With funding from the Clinton Foundation in 2011, version 3.0 is currently being refined in South Africa with the motto of "making fun functional."

Television Tech

One of the big tech questions in April 2012, was "Did Ikea Just Beat Apple to the All-In-One Television?" Ikea, the Swedish retailer known for build-it-yourself merchandise, "unveiled a new line of televisions designed to simplify and streamline consumers' chaotic entertainment systems." Called Uppleva (or Experience), the high-def TV has a built-in Blu-ray player, cordless subwoofer, and storage to hide unsightly cables and wires. It supports Wi-Fi connectivity, has ports for HDMI and USB, and comes with a universal remote. Uppleva will start at $950, and will hit Europe this year, and the U.S. in 2013.

High Tech Babies

For Digital Age parents, looking for tech solutions for their little bundle-of-joy's comfort is a no-brainer. In March 2012, Gizmodo reported on a Exmobaby Suit that transmits data from baby to your computer. The onesie is outfitted with non-contact ECG sensors that monitor baby's heart rate, skin temperature and movement. "The system will also send text and e-mail alerts, automatically and in real-time, as the baby's stats change." Still undergoing beta testing at hospitals ahead of FDA approval, the hope is that with enough data, the onesie can predict everything from baby's energy/alertness to mood.

The New York Times in February 2012 reported on designer Russell Greenberg's newest product from his company Cameo by Rux—custom-made rattles with the ends shaped like Mom and Dad's profiles. The maple-wood toy is carved on a lathe, finished by hand, and sells for $180.

Cell Phones That Can Finally See Through Clothing

Smartphones with X-ray vision have already been hyped, since cameras that can detect infrared radiation have been able to see through clothes for years. But now researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas have improved and miniaturized the technology, so that it could be manufactured cheaply enough to make it usable in everyday phones. Tapping into terahertz radiation detection, with a complementary imaging processor using CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) technology, cell phones can now carry a chip that is affordable. Privacy concerns have been addressed, so the "imaging" smartphone will have to be placed within 10 centimeters of the object (or person) being examined to actually see through the outer layers.

Hit-and-Miss Tech: Touchscreen Dashes in New Cars

Success with major touchscreens in the dash of autos has been hit and miss. Ford SYNC, with MyFord Touch as its dash touchscreen for infotainment, had too many bugs and Consumer Reports downgraded any Ford vehicle with the system. Ford retooled the system and released a software update in March 2012, but an April 2012 review of the updated system still found problems.

Tesla's Model S and now Model X offer a huge 17-inch touchscreen as its center console, with a fully digital driver's binnacle. All the HVAC controls, entertainment systems, safety and other gadgetry in the Model X are loaded onto this touchscreen. Multiple USB ports will allow external devices to be hooked up, with a third-party app support. Model X is available for pre-order, costing around $50,000, with deliveries to begin in late 2013 or early 2014. If you can't wait, or you're more the do-it-yourself type, you might check out a Web site called Dashboard Devices.

Digital Safety—More Police Tech

The New York PD and the Department of Defense are "developing a way to scan people for guns from a safe distance of more than 80 feet away." Mayor Bloomberg is interested, since 61% of New York City's 2010 homicides were gun related. Utilizing terahertz waves (like the new X-ray cell phones, in another post in this article), which pass through clothing but can't penetrate metal, police could scan a suspect from afar, looking for spots where the person might be carrying a metal object shaped like a weapon. Privacy concerns are being worked out, as the technology is still being tested at the NYPD's Rodman's Neck shooting range in the Bronx.

Too Many Old Gadgets You Can't Throw Away?

We all have closets and boxes filled with gadgets and electronics we once thought we couldn't live without. Now they are gathering dust, while we have a vague niggling feeling that someday, somehow, they may be useful again. Lifehacker offers ten suggestions for how to repurpose some of that electronic debris.

Old laptops can be turned into tablets or second monitors. Old desktop computers can be turned into everything from a retro arcade to a kitchen computer full of recipes. Digital photo frames can be hung on the wall to display rotating artwork, or as an audio-visual party mix. Dead hard drives can be turned into clocks, old routers into wireless radios, and so on.

Biometrics for Face Recognition

Associated Press announced in May 2012 that a newly launched app can scan faces of patrons in 25 bars across San Francisco, to determine their ages and genders. Based in Austin, Texas, SceneTap allows potential bar visitors to "check their smartphones for real-time updates on a bar's crowd size, average age and men-to-women mix to decide whether the scene is to their liking." The makers of SceneTap stress that the app doesn't identify people or save their personal information. But a backlash has already started, with some San Francisco bar-goers promising to boycott any bar with the installed app.

In January 2012, the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University, announced at their 8th annual briefing at its headquarters in Rosslyn that advances in biometrics is getting closer to IDing every visitor to the United States. Sixty-one countries are already using biometrics for border control.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported in December 2011, that Russia and the European Union are moving toward visa-free travel with biometric passports. Visa-free travel is being touted as a potential boost to the economies of struggling European countries. "Currently the 2.5 million or so Russians that visit the Schengen border-free area each year need to apply in advance for visas—which likely dissuades potential tourists to southern European countries, like Greece."

Smartphones—Real-Time Info, Solutions and Payment Apps

Pew Research released a report in May 2012 about how people's use of smartphones is changing both their communications with others, and their relationship with information. Specifically, "users' ability to access data immediately through apps, Web browsers and through contact with their social networks, is creating a new culture of real-time information seekers and problem solvers." The study found that 70% of all cell phone users and 86% of smartphone owners have used their phones in the previous 30 days to seek out information and solve problems. The most, 41%, have used their cell phones to set up a meeting or social get-together.

At the U.S. cellphone industry trade show in New Orleans in May 2012, the agreed-upon expectation is that cell phones will eventually be the primary method for consumers to pay for purchases. But there was little agreement on exactly how to make this happen. Virtual wallets already abound, and MasterCard is anxious to speed up "wallet proliferation" with a new service to be available in the Fall. Visa is aggressively pursuing tap-to-pay phones, but what's holding back the new technology "is that U.S. phone companies have to allow the banks to load cards for use on phones." Meanwhile, the phone companies themselves have their own ideas about virtual wallets.

Gaming Updates—Tournaments, Falling Sales and Music Scoring

According to Seattle Times' Brier Dudley, the $1 million Dota 2 video gaming tournament was held in nearby Bellevue over the Labor Day weekend. The event coincided with the PAX gaming conference in Seattle the same weekend. It was sponsored by game giant Valve, who started the annual event last year in Cologne, Germany. Sixteen teams over there competed in a group-stage, double elimination playoff format for the $1 million payout. The winning team for the first tournament was from Ukraine. Dota is a highly successful, multiplayer, online fantasy game derived from Warcraft III.

Brier Dudley (Seattle Times) also reported that in April 2012, U.S. video game sales fell 32%, hardware sales dropped 32%, and physical software sales plunged 42%. Some analysts think the Easter holiday could have been a factor, with Easter-driven games sales happening in March instead. Despite the slowing of overall game sales, Microsoft's Xbox 360 was responsible for 47% of console sales in April, the 14th consecutive month that the console had more than 40% of the market. Kinect Star Wars, an Xbox exclusive, was April's best-selling, single platform physical game in the U.S.

With Microsoft and Valve headquartered in Seattle, it should be no surprise that Seattle has a film-scoring program. Emmy Award winning composer Hummie Mann moved to Seattle from Los Angeles in 1996, and began teaching students' musical scoring the next year. Last September, the Seattle Film Institute and the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program merged, and now offer one of the first certification programs of its kind. Students are taught musical scoring that can end up in movies, TV, commercials and even video games.

Seeking Start-Ups for Investors and Industry Solutions

In May 2012, Seattle announced six finalists for the latest Seattle Angel Conference. The Conference is an investor-driven event bringing together Northwest start-ups and investors. Modeled on conferences in Oregon, each investor kicked in a few thousand dollars, and the pooled money was then invested in the winner of the pitch competition on May 31, 2012. The six final start-ups were more nuts-and-bolts ideas (no social mobile apps), from light-emitting safety gear for construction, to shipping containers for getting healthier food into urban areas.

Some industries (like hospitals) are reaching out to start-ups, to help find solutions for their technology challenges. Re-admittance to hospitals after joint replacement operations is a problem. And if patients who traveled for the original surgery end up re-admitted at their local hospitals, the original hospital has no data on how many of their surgery patients needed re-admittance—and why. In May 2012, New York launched their Digital Health Accelerator, "a program that will give 12 health IT start-ups access to the state's healthcare providers and their data, to design software that improves patient care."

Mobile App News—Saving Stuff to Security

The popular Web and mobile Read it Later app, which already has 4.5 million users, has been renamed Pocket—and is now free. Pocket is a content aggregation app that lets users snag practically anything online that catches their interest, and then organizes and saves it to be read later. Pocket is integrated into over 290 apps across many platforms, and has an open API to let users and developers create their own Pocket apps.

How about a new mobile app to stop you from downloading apps with viruses and malware? A start-up called TrustGo Mobile Security has released a free app called TrustGo Antivirus & Mobile Security, for phones running Google's Android software. The TrustGo app scans the apps already on users' phones, and lets users search for safe versions of a desired app. It also offers cloud-based data backup, a service to locate a lost phone, and safe Web browsing.

More Travel Apps for Kids

With summer travel fast approaching, most parents know that the best way to keep kids quiet during a long journey is to toss a tablet or smartphone loaded with kid apps into the back seat. But which apps? The Boston Globe visited a K-5 school to get some ideas from the kids themselves. First of all, not all kids are into endless video games.

Avid fifth-grade readers like producing video book reviews with Apple's iMovie, and posting them on YouTube. Other movie-making apps are also popular, like Toontastic, which lets kids make their own cartoons and upload the video to the Toontastic Web site. And parents will like free apps such as Children TV and Famigo Sandbox to child-proof mobile devices and lock out inappropriate content.

Vehicle Safety—Analyzing Drivers and Reducing Traffic Jams

For nervous families with teen or elderly drivers, a new device could track their driving habits. Still in development, the device can be plugged into a car's electronic diagnostic port inside the engine compartment, and beam out vehicle information such as car speed, acceleration rate, steering and braking with GPS coordinates. Alerts could be sent to parents if a teen is texting while driving, and the phone can be deactivated. The system could also monitor an elderly driver's aptitude over time, and could possibly earn insurance discounts by demonstrating safe driving over time. The prototype is a collaboration between AT&T and an Israeli start-up, Traffilog.

In April 2012, PopSci reported that "Honda is working to help human drivers reduce traffic in real-time by analyzing the driving patterns of individual vehicles, and determine if each one is likely to cause a traffic jam. The program analyzes the acceleration and deceleration of each car, and prods the driver to take actions to avoid traffic congestion among the vehicles behind it. The system differs from others in that it looks at the traffic congestion behind instead of ahead. With a color-coded onboard terminal, the driver is encouraged to correct his behaviors for smoother driving to alleviate congestion behind his car. Still in the prototype phase, on-road testing will be conducted in Japan and Indonesia this summer.

Marilyn is a freelance writer and humorist, with a special interest (besides computers and technology) in Science Fiction. A SF Horror story appeared in July 2011 in Deadman's Tome. And in January 2012 she had a SF Police Procedural appearing in Cosmic Crime magazine, and a SF Dystopian Romance appearing in the Strange Valentines anthology. She also has almost seventy articles on Helium.com, and is writing a humorous Young Adult SF series, Chronicles of Mathias. Volumes One and Two have received a "Gold Star for Excellence" from TeensReadToo.com, and are available from most on-line bookstores.

ComputorEdge E-Books has converted many of Marilyn's computer humor columns into four e-books.

* Computer Confusion in Paradise: Lo! And in the Beginning There Was Total Befuddlement!, in both EPUB format for iPad, NOOK, etc., and MOBI format for Amazon Kindle.

* Computer Hardware: "Parts Is Parts", in both EPUB format for iPad, NOOK, etc., and MOBI format for Amazon Kindle.

* Computerholics Anonymous: PC Users, Abusers and Confusioners, in both EPUB format for iPad, NOOK, etc., and MOBI format for Amazon Kindle.

* My Computer, My Nemesis: Bravely into the Smiley-Face Virtual Void!, in both EPUB format for iPad, NOOK, etc., and MOBI format for Amazon Kindle.

* All four e-books can be found at our E-Book Store.

Wally Wang's Apple Farm

“The Slow Death of Research in Motion”
by Wally Wang

The Slow Death of Research in Motion; Recover Your Files; The iPad Data Plans; Predictions From Bill Gates; Losing the Monopoly; Safari Extensions.

The latest casualty for not adapting to change is Research in Motion (RIM), the company that makes the once-popular Blackberry smartphones. When Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, it forever changed people's expectations of what a smartphone should do. Yet Research in Motion ignored the threat and now the company is rapidly losing market share and laying off thousands of people to conserve cash. Even stranger is that Research in Motion is pinning the company's hopes on a single product, their Blackberry 10 operating system.

How will the Blackberry 10 operating system be better than Android or iOS? Research in Motion isn't telling either because they want to keep it a surprise or because they don't have a clue (more likely). When a company relies on a single product to save it, despite not being able to clearly define its advantages, that's not a good sign.

Forbes explains RIM's failings as "a state of denial—it's a specific mental affliction that besets people who have been successful for too long. And it's called confirmation bias...leaders have a vision of what they expect and they dismiss any evidence that defies that vision."

Figure 1. Research in Motion's stock keeps steadily dropping.

Basically RIM decided to ignore facts. When confronted with uncomfortable information, the executives at RIM didn't study them for what trends they revealed, but likely dismissed them or just got angry that anyone would confront them with evidence that contradicted their beliefs in the first place. Any time you get angry at the messenger rather than the message, that's a big clue you're living in a state of denial.

What's surprising isn't that so many news stories are covering Research in Motion's slow demise, but that anyone should be surprised at the inevitable. If you drove a car towards a brick wall, would you be surprised when you eventually crash into it?

Likewise when people started buying iPhones and Android phones, Research in Motion could clearly see that people wanted different phones than what RIM offered, yet the company only made half-hearted efforts at similar touch screen phones that didn't come close to what Android and iPhones could offer. In the meantime, they continued marketing their ordinary Blackberry phones that were once popular. The company assumed that Blackberry phones were popular in the past, so they'll always be popular in the present and the future, so why bother changing? With this type of mindset, there's no reason to change until it's too late.

The formula for failure can be seen with Research in Motion, Kodak, Montgomery Wards, Wherehouse Records, Borders Bookstores and Blockbuster Video. First, find something that works. Second, focus all your attention on what's working while ignoring any evidence that circumstances are changing. Third, rather than focus on making your own business model obsolete, focus on protecting it at all costs and wait for competitors to make your business model obsolete. Fourth, stand around in shock and wonder how ignoring trends for several years and allowing competitors to make your business model obsolete could possibly bring your company to its knees.

The key is learning to recognize when the world changes. Actively look for trends that threaten your current thinking and look for ways your current business model could be wiped out. Then jump on this new business model while maintaining your current one. Now if change occurs, you'll be nimble enough to move with the times while everyone else stands around in shock when faced with the inevitable that gradually turns into the obvious.

In his book How to Make Big Money in Your Own Small Business, author Jeffrey J. Fox says the first thing any company needs is a customer. Before the iPhone, Research in Motion had plenty of customers who wanted a Blackberry smartphone. After the iPhone and Android appeared, Research in Motion suddenly had much fewer customers who wanted their Blackberry phones, yet the company failed to notice this sudden shift in consumer taste.

"Big corporations talk innovation, but don't innovate," Jeffrey J. Fox says. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs originally tried to interest Hewlett-Packard into selling the original Apple personal computer, but Hewlett-Packard turned them down. Now look at where Hewlett-Packard is today compared to Apple. Big companies often fail to see big opportunities because they're too busy looking at the minute details of their current business, which guarantees that most companies will never look for alternatives until it's too late.

Today, Research in Motion looks foolish for ignoring the iPhone and Android for so long, but back in 2007, nobody at the company thought that Android or the iPhone represented much of a threat. Hindsight is only 20/20 because you can't ignore the obvious. Looking ahead can be equally clear if you just open your eyes and stop covering your ears to avoid hearing about any trends that may upset your way of thinking. If facts upset you, then you're already heading down the path to failure. Just ask Research in Motion how well that strategy of denial worked out for them.

Recover Your Files

The simplest way to recover files is from the Trash icon. When you delete any file, your Macintosh stores it temporarily in a Trash folder. Only after you empty this trash folder will you actually delete a file.

This two-step process gives you one last chance to retrieve any file you may have deleted by mistake. Just right-click on the Trash icon on the Dock and when a menu appears, choose Open to display a Finder window. Now you can right-click on the file you want to retrieve and when a menu appears, choose Put Back to return the file back to its original location. Of course, you can also just drag the file and plop it in a new location too.

If you empty the Trash folder and then later want to retrieve a file, your task has just become a little bit tougher. If you have an external hard disk hooked up and turned on Time Machine, retrieving files is still simple. Just click on the Time Machine icon on the menu bar and when a menu appears, choose Enter Time Machine. Now you'll see a receding list of multiple Finder windows that you can scroll through until you find the file you want.

Of course, if you don't turn Time Machine on because you don't have an external hard disk to back up all your data, then retrieving files can be much tougher. That's when you might need a $99 program like Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery.

At the simplest level, Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery can scan a hard disk or USB flash drive to retrieve previously deleted files. If you install the program before you lose any data, it can create an image of your hard disk, or just certain parts of your hard disk, to protect your most valuable data.

Figure 2. Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery has a simple user interface to make data retrieval easy.

Figure 3. Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery can create images of disk sectors.

Besides recovering files from a hard disk or USB flash drive, Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery can also retrieve lost audio files stored on an iPod, lost pictures stored on a memory card, files stored on a damaged CD/DVD, or lost files from a hard disk that's been formatted.

Figure 4. Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery can retrieve files from a variety of different media.

If you have a file on your Macintosh, it's probably important enough to save so either take the time now to back up your data using Time Machine or by creating a disk image with Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery, or wait until it's time to panic and use Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery to do its best to retrieve your lost files wherever they happen to be. For those technically-inclined users, the program even offers a raw recovery feature that lets you search for deleted files by type such as Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel files.

Data recovery can be a complicated task, but Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery can make this task much easier. It's no substitute for an updated backup of your files, but it's pretty close for those times when you didn't back up your data like you should.

The iPad Data Plans

If you want an iPad that can stay connected to the Internet practically anywhere you go, get the iPad with cellular capabilities. In the United States, your two choices for iPad cellular data connectivity are AT&T and Verizon. The big advantage of AT&T is a lower monthly price ($14.99 for 250MB of data) vs. Verizon's $20 a month for 1GB of data.

Figure 5. Comparing AT&T's data plans with Verizon's data plans.

In case you're wondering whether you should choose an AT&T iPad or a Verizon iPad, first check the coverage of both networks in your area. Beyond data coverage, the next criteria is price. While AT&T's $14.99 monthly plan may appear cheaper, it gives you 250MB of data, which may not be enough for more than casual Internet connectivity. Verizon's $20 a month plan gives you 1GB of data, which is probably more than enough for most people.

In the past three months using the iPad, I've averaged roughly 400MB of data every month through ordinary Web browsing on the iPad in places where I can't find a Wi-Fi hotspot. This doesn't include video or audio streaming, but just ordinary Web surfing. Since I opted for a Verizon iPad for greater reliability, I tend to use half of my monthly allotment. If I had gone with the AT&T iPad, I would have run out of data quickly and been forced to pay for additional data, which would make AT&T's data plan more expensive than Verizon's.

Besides Verizon's greater network coverage, the Verizon iPad also offers the option of turning your iPad into a Wi-Fi hotspot so you can connect multiple devices to your iPad's Internet connection. AT&T's iPad currently does not offer this hotspot feature, so if this is something you want, you have no choice but to go with Verizon.

A third option is to get a mobile MiFi device that connects to a cellular network and provides a WiFi hotspot. The drawback of a MiFi device is that the data plans typically cost $50 or more a month. Unless you're a heavy data user, you may be better off just sticking with the iPad data plans for AT&T or Verizon. In addition, a MiFi device means lugging around one more item, and if you're trying to travel light, the nuisance of carrying around a MiFi device can get annoying.

The other solution is to avoid paying for any Internet connectivity at all and just relying on finding a Wi-Fi hotspot if you can. However, once you try a cellular Internet connection, it's hard to go back to the sporadic nature of Wi-Fi hotspots. If your mobile phone offers a Wi-Fi hotspot feature, use that just as long as you're aware of the added cost of paying for additional data through your cellular carrier.

If Internet connectivity is crucial, then you'll have no choice but to choose some sort of data plan. If Internet connectivity isn't important but just a major convenience, you'll have to decide how much that convenience is worth to you.

Predictions From Bill Gates

Back in 1999, Bill Gates wrote a book called Business @ the Speed of Thought. Although the book is dated by now, Bill Gates makes some interesting points that have come true.

In one story, Bill Gates was talking to some German bankers who were unsure how the Internet would change their business. Back then, few people used the Internet so the German bankers were worried that they would waste money catering to Internet customers. Bill Gates asked the bankers if they could foresee a time when more people would have computers. They said yes. Then he asked them if they could foresee a time when more people would be connected on the Internet. They said yes.

Once they realized that they honestly believed more people would be using computers and get connected to the Internet, they could clearly see that catering to Internet customers would eventually make sense in the future. As a result, these German bankers decided to invest in setting up a Web site and pursue online banking.

Today the idea of ignoring Internet customers seems ludicrous, but back then, that's the fearful way many people thought. If the Internet couldn't return immediate short-term gains, most people chose to ignore it. By just applying Bill Gates' thinking to any situation, you can get past the short-term thinking that cripples most companies and see the future for what will eventually come.

Now look at the sales trends of the Macintosh, iPhone and iPad that keeps rising every quarter. Despite all of their Macintosh models aging and selling in a global recession, Apple increased sales of Macintosh computers in Asia by 40 percent. Apply Bill Gates' logic and ask yourself if you believe that sales of Macintosh computers will continue increasing over time. Based on the current trends of the last few years of ever-increasing sales, the answer appears to be yes.

Now ask yourself if you believe that as soon as Apple releases new Macintosh models, sales will likely continue growing. If Apple can sell aging Macintosh models, then it's likely they can also sell newer Macintosh models just as quickly.

So if you believe that sales of Macintosh computers will keep growing and sales of new Macintosh models will likely continue accelerating sales of Macintosh computers, then by Bill Gates' logic, it seems that more people will likely use Macintosh computers in the future. So if you're hesitant like the German bankers were over the Internet, you can see that it's likely that more people will be using Macintosh computers in the future. If your business caters to Macintosh users, you'll be ready to capitalize on this eventual outcome. If your business ignores the Macintosh, then you better start developing a plan to include the Macintosh or risk watching your business continue to shrink over time.

Figure 6. Sales of Macintosh computers continue to climb.

One other amusing comment Bill Gates makes in his book is his prediction about a device that he calls a computer notebook. "A computer notebook being a new device that enables you to take notes as you do today with a notepad and lets you carry with you all the personal and professional data you need...The great thing about a computer notebook is that no matter how much you stuff into it, it doesn't get bigger or heavier."

Doesn't this sound strangely like an iPad? Apply Bill Gates' logic to the future of the iPad and ask yourself if you believe sales of the iPad will suddenly plummet any time soon. Most likely the answer will be no. Then ask yourself if people will continue finding different ways to use tablet computers including the iPad. Most likely the answer will be yes. Now you can safely conclude that the iPad will likely continue growing in the future.

For those who have actually used an iPad, you can ask yourself if you believe that the iPad can replace a laptop computer in many cases. For many people, the answer is yes. Thus if sales of the iPad will likely not plummet any time in the future (regardless of the success or failure of Windows 8 tablets), people will continue finding reasons to use a tablet computer like an iPad, and many people will find that the iPad can replace a laptop computer for multiple uses, then it seems logical to believe that sales of the iPad will continue growing.

If you choose to ignore the growth of the iPad, you could be missing out on lucrative opportunities. Just ask Bill Gates what he thinks about the future of a computer notebook device.

Losing the Monopoly

What's killing most companies is that they're losing their monopoly. Back in the old days, you could only find information in a book and you had to go to a bookstore to buy a book. If you wanted to order a book, you placed an order at the bookstore and they called you when it arrived so you could pick it up. Nowadays, you can order a book online and have it sent to your front door. Even better, you can find information on the Internet without looking at a book at all. Once bookstores lost their monopoly on information, they could no longer survive.

The game console market is going through a similar upheaval. At one time, the best way to play games was through a dedicated game console. Nowadays, you can play games on an iPad, on a smartphone, or through a social media network like Facebook using any computer with Internet access. To play a game, you no longer need to use a dedicated game console.

That's why sales of games on disc has plummeted by 31 percent and continues falling. Now that you aren't forced to play games on a dedicated game console, customers are choosing to get their games through digital downloads on other devices. To play a video game, you no longer need a dedicated video game console because those devices have lost their monopoly on gaming.

The cost of making a game for a dedicated video game console keeps going up while the market for dedicated game consoles keeps going down. As dedicated video game consoles get fewer new games, they'll attract and retain fewer people, accelerating the trend away from dedicated video game consoles.

Michael Pachter, a video game analyst at Wedbush Securities, says publishers have released fewer titles and relied too much on sequels. "They have been reluctant to greenlight any new [intellectual property]—in 2007, Electronic Arts made 49 games, in 2012, they are making 19."

At one time, the Sony Playstation dominated the dedicated video game market. Then Nintendo's Wii took over. Finally, Microsoft's Xbox caught up and took the lead. Now as the dedicated video game market sees increasing signs of decline, all three game console makers will likely see declining sales and a shrinking market. If your business relies on having a monopoly, it can only last as long as that monopoly never gets broken. The second it does, there goes your business, so you need to be fast enough to get out while you can.

In the meantime, you can play many video games on your iPad for free. Just browse through this list of free iPad games and download the ones that look interesting. With so many free games available on the iPad, you now have one less reason to buy video games for a dedicated video game console any more.

To watch the next monopoly crumble, keep an eye on the television industry. In the old days, people had to watch whatever the networks aired at the time, and crowd around a bulky TV set in the living room. Nowadays, people can watch shows any time they want, on practically any device they want. The big three television networks (CBS, ABC,and NBC) have been seeing steadily declining audiences for years as people no longer need to watch TV shows according to the network's schedule.

Now that the networks have lost their monopoly over TV shows, their infrastructure becomes a liability instead of an asset as they must now compete against other ways of watching TV shows. The television networks are already obsolete. They just don't know yet when they'll disappear.

*                    *                    *

If you've used the Firefox browser before, you've probably seen lots of extensions that can make Firefox more versatile. Naturally, Safari offers extensions as well. Just load Safari, click the Safari menu and choose Safari Extensions. This will open up Apple's official site where you can browse and download different extensions to modify your Safari browser.

Figure 7. Expand the capability of Safari with extensions.

In the early days, before Wally became an Internationally renowned comedian, computer book writer, and generally cool guy, Wally Wang used to hang around The Byte Buyer dangling participles with Jack Dunning and go to the gym to pump iron with Dan Gookin.

Wally is responsible for the following books:

My New Mac, Lion Edition

My New iPad 2

Steal This Computer Book

Microsoft Office 2010 For Dummies

Beginning Programming for Dummies

Beginning Programming All-in-One Reference for Dummies

Breaking Into Acting for Dummies with Larry Garrison

Strategic Entrepreneurism with Jon and Gerald Fisher

How to Live with a Cat (When You Really Don't Want To)

The Secrets of the Wall Street Stock Traders

Mac Programming For Absolute Beginners

99% Fairy Tales (Children's Stories the 1% Tell About the Rest of Us)

The Zen of Effortless Selling with Moe Abdou

The 15-Minute Movie Method

In his spare time, Wally likes blogging about movies and writing screenplays at his site "The 15 Minute Movie Method." Wally can be reached at wally@computoredge.com.

Worldwide News & Product Reviews

“The latest in tech news and hot product reviews.”
by Charles Carr

Seven Ways to Keep Your Smartphone Safe; Free Web Service Helps Identify Internet Abuse; 76% of People Conduct Online Searches in Two or More Languages; StarTech Bi-Directional Adapter Converter.

Seven Ways to Keep Your Smartphone Safe

Web security expert and managing partner of 403 Web Security, Alan Wlasuk, writes in this week with important information about smartphone security:

Smartphone security threats are increasing, according to the new Symantec Internet safety report, and the two biggest malware offenders spy on users and collect device data. This indicates that cyber criminals are adapting to the mobile world and making it their playground.

Most consumers view themselves as an unidentified target but with the rise in mobile business and the "bring your own device" trend, consumers should always fear the hacker.

The recent move by the FCC and the four major cell phone carriers to create a database of stolen phones is in response to the danger your smartphone is in from thieves who want to steal and then sell them for profit. What about the hackers who just want the information from your phone—and then hope you continue using it to make financial transactions?

The goal of cyber thieves isn't always to hack into your computer, and it's not to steal your phone. Instead, they seek to borrow it just long enough to embed malicious software that can steal your data. Crime follows money, and with the information on your phone representing access to potentially billions of dollars in the cyber crime world, you and your phone become a tempting target.

Here are a few tips to help stay smartphone safe:

1. Use the remote wipe feature. Most smartphones have a kill or wipe feature that can be triggered remotely with the correct codes. Some of these implementations are free, but even the paid versions are well worth the peace of mind if your smartphone is stolen or lost. The good news is that the feature works great. The bad news is that the phone must be turned on and connected to a Wi-Fi or telephone network for it to work. Hopefully, you'll get lucky and the thief will be slow or technically inept.

2. Use GPS tracking. The remote kill or wipe feature often is combined with a GPS tracking feature that lets you remotely pinpoint your phone. A word of caution: However exciting it might be to track the thief to his hideout, don't do it. A better use of the remote GPS tracking feature will be to discover whether you left your phone in a friend's car, restaurant or the middle of the street after it fell off the roof of your car. The tracking feature is either free or quite inexpensive, and it will be worth every penny the next time you misplace your phone.

3. Safeguard financial features. Sure, do your best to keep the smash-and-grab thieves from taking your phone (they're stealing them right out of people's hands!), but don't think it ends there. If your smartphone is stolen, immediately run the cancellation traps for whatever financial features your smartphone might contain—call your bank or credit union and block account access, etc. And call your service provider.

4. Use strong passwords. For those credible apps that you do download (only a mixture of numbers, letters and cases that aren't easy to figure out).

5. Never, ever jailbreak your phone. At the risk of offending my geek friends, I strongly suggest you never jailbreak your phone, which means modifying the operating system to implement features or functions the vendor had not intended. The vendor (i.e., Apple, Google, Microsoft) has provided a relatively secure, tested OS for your use. Any jailbreak is guaranteed to reduce the inherent security of your smartphone.

6. Consider every app a potential security risk. Avoid the temptation to download an app just because it seems like fun or a friend recommended it. We should be past the days when we would install arbitrary software on our home or work computer—and today's smartphone is a computer that just happens to fit in a pocket. Treat it with the same respect.

7. Keep your operating system current. Make sure your phone's operating system is the current versions. Security flaws are being discovered and repaired all the time; it is important that you keep up.

The recurring theme here is that for all practical purposes, smartphones are simply smaller versions of desktop and notebook computers. Thus, they suffer from the same security Internet-related issues, but without the public's awareness. Do not assume that you'll never lose your phone through inattention or theft. More and more criminals are targeting smartphones, and as the FCC has noted, they are getting more and more brash and insidious.

Protect yourself now, before it's too late.

Free Web Service Helps Identify Internet Abuse

The folks from the Cloud Security Company, Zscaler, write in with information about a free service the public can access which will allow them to query a dynamic ThreatLabZ database to identify whether any of their endpoint clients and IP addresses are being used for malicious purposes. According to the company:

Users who leverage the new IPAbuseCheck service will now be able to identify and clean-up compromised endpoint clients that are unintentionally participating in some form of Internet proxy abuse—including brute-force Web logins, forum spamming, pay-per action cheating, open proxy scanning, DDoS attacks and Web site scraping.

The Zscaler ThreatLabz IPAbuseCheck service combines a simple, easy-to-use Web interface with an extensive ThreatLabz database that contains IP addresses that have attempted to forward abusive or unwanted traffic through one or more Zscaler cloud proxies.

Unlike other publicly available services and tools, ThreatLabZ IPAbuseCheck provides a different perspective on Internet abuse. Lists that track forum spamming and other types of Internet abuse, for example, often log the source IP address from the perspective of the spammed Web server. This approach, however, will often result in the identification of a source address that represents a proxy IP address that is being abused, as opposed to the actual infected client. IPAbuseCheck is different than standard blacklists in that the clients listed have specifically attempted some form of Internet abuse through one or more Web proxies within Zscaler's global security cloud.

"Malicious or compromised clients leverage proxies to distribute and/or mask their origin when conducting forms of abuse," said Mike Geide, senior researcher at Zscaler ThreatLabZ and developer of the new IPAbuseCheck tool. "We've seen so many IP addresses bang against our proxies hundreds of thousands of times the past few months, attempting to brute-force Web logins. Yet, searching for these IPs against multiple blacklists does not identify them as being offensive. This new IPAbuseCheck service will provide another helpful resource to identify and clean-up compromised endpoint clients."

76% of People Conduct Online Searches in Two or More Languages

According to the independent digital marketing agency, Greenlight:

It might be assumed that not many people conduct online searches in more than one language. However, results from a global survey undertaken by Greenlight suggests quite the opposite, that a significant 76% do. Occupations one might most readily associate with the Internet—IT and Marketing—topped the list of those who are most likely to search in more than one language.

Greenlight's global "Search & Social Survey (2011-2012)" asked 500 people—from students, law enforcement professionals, medical staff, accountants, lawyers to the unemployed, how they engage with online advertising, search engines and social networks, in order to glean insight into how consumers engage with marketers today, and to formulate views on what the future might hold. Some of the countries topping Greenlight's chart are not entirely surprising—Belgium, for example, has three official languages. However, others, namely Italy and Spain, are not so obvious.

"The fact that Italy and Spain top the chart with 100% of respondents claiming to search in multiple languages, despite reasonably homogenized language use, is possibly a testament to the position of English as the quasi-official language of Europe and the relative prevalence of English language Web pages," says Adam Bunn, director of search engine optimization (SEO), at Greenlight.

Bunn points to data compiled by Greenlight in 2010. It showed the UK produced the most Web pages per head in Europe at 17 pages per person, compared to ten per person in Spain and just six per person in Italy. "Presumably as well as there being more English spam on the Web, this also means there is more high quality English content to be searched for by Europeans as well," says Bunn.

Search engines use the domain extension to help them determine the geographical relevance of a site, so while a .co.uk domain stands an increased chance of ranking within the search engine results pages (SERPs) in the UK, it will count against it when people are searching in another country. Consequently, this behavior may warrant the creation of multiple language sites for a brand or business. This of course runs counter to traditional SEO logic which states that duplicate content is bad—which it is—so this would have to be undertaken with some caution, ensuring that all content is properly localized so that search engines know that one version is intended for region A, the other for region B.

Bunn concludes, "The point here is that proper research, beyond just gathering a few keywords from the Google AdWords Keyword Tool, really does help to inform SEO strategy. The first step to deciding whether to progress an opportunity is to define the size of that opportunity. This data does give some food for thought."

StarTech Bi-Directional Adapter Converter

With the advent of SATA hard drives, you may find a time when you have to install a SATA drive in your old computer with only IDE controllers. Actually this device will allow you to install a SATA drive on an IDE system or an IDE drive on a SATA system. It is the StarTech Bi-Directional Adapter Converter.

This unit will allow you to install a SATA drive on a system with IDE headers or an IDE drive on a system designed for SATA drives. One end of the device has a female IDE connector. The other end has two SATA connectors (one black and one orange), a 4-pin male SP4 power connector (the power connector used on floppy drives), and two DIP switches for setting the SATA drive as master or slave on an IDE system.

If you are installing a SATA drive to an IDE system the IDE connector plugs into the IDE header on the motherboard. Set the DIP switches on the converter to master or slave. Connect the 7-pin SATA cable from the black "To Drive" connector on the converter to the hard drive. Next connect power to the hard drive from the computer power supply. Finally, connect an SP4 floppy power connector from the power supply to the converter. You should be all set.

If, on the other hand, you want to put an IDE drive into a SATA system, here's how you do it. The DIP switches do not matter for this operation. The 40-pin female IDE connector plugs into the IDE drive. Connect the 7-pin SATA cable to the orange "To Computer" connector on the converter and the other end to the SATA connector on the motherboard. Plug a molex power connector from the power supply to the hard drive. Then finally connect an SP4 floppy connector to the device as outlined above.

The package includes the converter, one SATA cable, one SP4 to LP4 (molex) Y connector in case you don't have a spare SP4 connector to use. This has an SP4 connector on one end and a male and female molex connector at the ends of the Y. The price varies but I found the product on Amazon for as low as $11.70.

The only downside to this device is that if you are installing a SATA drive on an IDE system, you will be limited to one hard drive on the IDE header you use for the SATA drive. If you have two hard drives, then the second hard drive would have to be connected as master or slave along with your CD/DVD drive using the second IDE header.

View the spec sheet for this product. [Available at Amazon.com.]

Review contributed by Joe Nuvolini

In addition to being an editor and columnist for ComputorEdge and ComputerScene Magazines, where he has written hundreds of feature articles and cover stories over the past decade, Charles Carr has also penned well over 1,000 non-tech newspaper and magazine articles and columns for various publications, including two widely-read columns each week for San Diego's North County Times newspaper.

Carr has covered such diverse topics as pesticide use in area schools, invasive background checks for county volunteers, asthma awareness, the debate over standards-based grading, potential vulnerabilities in electronic voting machines, and Southern California's devastating 2003 and 2007 wildfires. He has also written many humorous pieces.

Carr has also edited dozens of stories and articles written by others which have appeared in major publications and web sites across the country.

He has been a contributor and technical advisor to L.A. and San Diego Parent magazines and receives dozens of requests a year to appear on Southern California television and radio stations to talk about important events in the tech world.

Carr has judged many writing competitions including San Diego Press Club and Time-Warner Communications contests and was sole judge for the national NAPPA Tech Toys awards for five years (which his kids really appreciated). He was recently a judge for the national "Poetry Out Loud" competition.

He has won many writing accolades, including Press Club awards for Best Column Writing, Consumer Writing and Best Arts and Entertainment, and has repeatedly taken top honors in San Diego Songwriter's Guild competitions for his original musical compositions.

Carr will soon publish his first book, What a World, a collection of his best writings.

Learn more at www.charlescarr.com.

EdgeWord: Facebook Follies

“There's a lot not of love lost with Facebook.”
by Jack Dunning

Some people are fond of pointing out that Facebook founder Zuckerberg has lost billions in the stock price drop, but the reality is that he never actually had most of that money in the first place.

The IPO for Facebook has been anything but spectacular. For those who purchased the stock a couple of weeks ago on the first day of the offering, they must feel a little burned right now. The price per share is down about 25%. Some people are fond of pointing out that Facebook founder Zuckerberg has lost billions in the drop, but the reality is that he never actually had most of that money in the first place. Except for about a billion in cash from the initial offering, the rest was all on paper. Zuckerberg doesn't have anything to worry about unless Facebook disappears tomorrow. It would be difficult to run through one billion dollars in cash—except the government will give him a lot of help with the task. "Tax analysts are ballparking the total [for Zuckerberg] at somewhere in the $1.5 billion to $2 billion range." This tax bill will apparently be a record and is due now.

Zuckerberg is the latest Internet "genius." His praises are being sung everywhere and, of course, his character is being analyzed for his secrets of success. "Have a dream." "Think big." "Believe in yourself." "Follow your passion." Where have we heard this before? Oh, yeah, from every American Idol winner.

The problem with Internet businesses is that they can be here today and gone tomorrow. Right now Facebook appears to have a strangle hold on the social networking market. I'm a member because my kids are members. If I want to see the latest postings of my grandchildren and read their words of wisdom, then I'd better keep checking the Facebook pages regularly. However, anytime I post anything it seems that I'm forced to use a new, non-intuitive interface. It seems unlikely that Facebook could ever just go away, but stranger things have happened—especially in cyberspace. What if everyone just gets bored or tired of keeping up with "keeping up"?

It seems that every other week Facebook is in the news for ticking off their subscribers by prying into personal habits or attempting to sell private data to advertisers. New articles and Blogs appear regularly on the Web about why someone is quitting Facebook. While millions of people use Facebook regularly, not many sing its praises. Often it's like showing up at a relative's house for dinner merely because it is expected, not because you want to.

At about the same time as the Facebook IPO, General Motors pulled ten million dollars of advertising from Facebook. It made big news, but there are many others who swear by marketing on Facebook. Advertising is how Facebook generates its revenues and they are currently doing about one billion dollars per year. The ads must be doing something for someone, even though I would never dream of clicking on one.

The day may come when Facebook fades into the background. If that happens it will probably be due to some now unknown upstart who initially nibbles around the edges. Of course, the founder of this fledgling Internet company will "have a dream," "think big," "believe in him/herself," and "follow his or her passion." If it happens at all, rather than a massive collapse, Facebook will slowly ebb. For now, I'll keep occasionally checking Facebook to see if my grand kids said anything cute.

Jack is the publisher of ComputorEdge Magazine. He's been with the magazine since first issue on May 16, 1983. Back then, it was called The Byte Buyer. His Web site is www.computoredge.com. He can be reached at ceeditor@computoredge.com. Jack is now in the process of updating and compiling his hundreds of articles and columns into e-books. Currently available:

Just released and available from Amazon, Misunderstanding Windows 8: An Introduction, Orientation, and How-to for Windows 8! Also available at Barnes and Noble and ComputorEdge E-Books.

Available exclusively from Amazon, Windows 7 Secrets Four-in-One E-Book Bundle,

Getting Started with Windows 7: An Introduction, Orientation, and How-to for Using Windows 7,

Sticking with Windows XP—or Not? Why You Should or Why You Should Not Upgrade to Windows 7,

and That Does Not Compute!, brilliantly drawn cartoons by Jim Whiting for really stupid gags by Jack about computers and the people who use them.

Editor's Letters: Tips and Thoughts from Readers

“Computer and Internet tips, plus comments on the articles and columns.”
by ComputorEdge Staff

"LibreOffice," "Infected Computer—Beware!"

LibreOffice

[Regarding Jack Dunning's May 18 article, "My Favorite Free Windows Office Productivity Software":]

Great minds think alike: Jack, that is exactly what I have done. I still have my CD of Office97 (along with stuff like 8" floppy disks with the CP/M and other stuff that I am in the process of transferring to a 750GB Clickfree backup drive).

I had left the M$ fold after Office97. OO (Open Office) was my Office Suite for many years.

You need to add that Oracle changed the new download into a trial version that would turn into a fee (not free) version! The reaction was so negative that OO was turned over to the Apache Group. I know this because the upgrade download had the change included with the "Accept this agreement radio button."

LibreOffice was a good fork into what could have turn into a bad one if you had not noticed the new setup. The cross platform LibreOffice is also included with the new LTS Operating System from Ubuntu.

-Art Blackwell, Evergreen

Jack,

Thank you for your article on LibreOffice. How does it compare with NeoOffice?

Thank you,

-Tom

NeoOffice is a Mac fork of OpenOffice and essentially the same. OpenOffice and LibreOffice also offer Macintosh versions, but NeoOffice is supposed to be more tailored to the Mac.

-Jack

Can existing Microsoft files (i.e. Word, Excel, etc.) be converted to LibreOffice files?

-Jim Theis, San Diego, CA

Yes, LibreOffice reads and saves most Microsoft file formats.

-Jack

Infected Computer—Beware!

[Regarding the May 11 Digital Dave column:]

Dave, you fell short of telling Mike in Spring valley that if he's got one infection, it's likely he's got several. First, there is no way to ensure a system is virus/spy/malware free without fresh system install. That said, he needs to either have someone do thorough antivirus and malware scans and elimination, or do it himself with several malware programs. One, especially an antivirus solution (which apparently let him get the malware in the first place) is definitely not enough. Some of this malware is very difficult to remove and it should be taken care of ASAP before personal data is compromised or lost.

-Rich Ernst, San Diego, CA

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